Sunday, March 7, 2010

sewing in sunday morning sun


From the Japanese Stylish Dress Book number 2. Introducing Pattern X.

The most important construction steps are well depicted and technical, albeit in Japanese! Luckily a girlfriend of mine does know a little and helped decipher the sizing chart (busto,waisto, hippo or something to that effect). These patterns tend to assume that you already know the fundamentals of sewing, as there are a lot of beginner level steps that are omitted.

That being said, I do consider myself an intermediate sewer and this is my third garment from this increasingly popular series, but twice I forgot to add my seam allowances (which aren't included on the patterns). D'oh. I'm blaming it on the dreamy photography and styling. If you aren't familiar with this series you really should check them out. Here and here. They really are quite addictive.

Over all, this has been a quick one to whip up and results in a blouse (I guess you would call it that) which is part bat wing, part peasanty, very floaty and thus will be very cool to wear in summer and great for keeping the sun off my skin. Apologies for photo above but it isn't really that short on the torso (I was being playing coy and scrunching my shoulders up). It also doesn't show the shape very well, which has turned out just as I hoped, altho I am in the habit now of taking a couple of inches off the sides of these patterns as they are exceptionally voluminous. 
The mister's verdict was "...it'll be good for wearing around the house" Jeez!! I actually really like it!